The 17 (30 page)

Zack often did that as a child. He slammed his head off the wall or the floor or even the refrigerator when he didn’t get his way. His mother had the proof in old pictures of his bleeding forehead and others of him wearing a toy football helmet to protect his noggin from his self-inflicted abuse.

He was a stubborn child. He was still stubborn today, it seemed.

Zack finally stopped his fruitless barrage on the door and calmly backed away from it.

He smiled. He finally understood.

His mother was not being hurtful or cruel. She was teaching a good lesson, perhaps in a terrible way.

The Unattainable Egg was unattainable for a reason. Sometimes you have to let go and accept your failings.

In that moment, Zack did. He let go of his hatred for the Ankhs. He let go of his guilt for not saving Mizuki. He let go of his fear of inadequacy and embraced his limitations. He let go of all the things that had held him back in his life.

He turned to see Setal standing in front of him with a strange look on his face, then blood spill out of his mouth. He fell forward, nearly knocking Zack to the floor.

Tyaz stood over him, her sword unsheathed and dripping blood. She dropped the sword, cupped her ears and bent over in pain—from the noise and from her own failings.

Tyaz looked mournfully at Zack, almost begging him for forgiveness with her haunting eyes. “I’m sorry. They told me Setal needed to die, that he was weak and lacked the Spark, that you had it and you must be protected at all costs. They told me what I was doing was serving a higher purpose. They needed me to be their savior. They told me only I could save them.”

Zack shook his head and looked at her with pity. “They can’t be saved, Tyaz. They never could be saved.”

“I killed Tess. I choked her to death with that rope. They came to me and told me she was weak and Sparkless, too, and she needed to go. And now I’ve killed Setal. What have I done?”

Setal gasped for air and then let out a long exhale. Zack’s watch began to drone and he knew once it stopped, all would be lost.

Time seemed to stand still again, but not because of a gimbal lock, but because Zack had another epiphany.

Zack grabbed Mizuki’s knife and peered at the handle, then at the moon on his hand. He smiled as he thought of the glorious time he spent with her, of her enchanting smile and loving eyes and her sharp tongue. They were endearing to him, all.

She was the love of his life. Everyone should be so lucky to have that. He never thought he would ever find it, but he did.

It was only a half a galaxy away.

Zack grabbed the handle of the knife with both hands and turned the blade toward him. He closed his eyes and whispered, “Anneka, Alldan will be with you soon,” and slammed the blade into his chest. He instantly coughed thick blood through his lips and he slumped to his knees and then to his side.

As he fell, he dropped the knife, Mizuki’s symbol staring back at him.

There are no longer seventeen. There are only sixteen now. The Ankhs have lost.

It was a pleasant thought to die with.

Part III

Chapter Five

To the Moons and Back

Zack’s eyes shot open and he gasped for air.

Blood was dried on the chest of his gray nylon shirt and there was a thin slit in it made by a curved blade of a knife.

The spring of his uncomfortable cot poked into the small of his back.

The cell had not changed. Not one bit. It was drab and depressing and he was back in it.

For the first time he was happy to be in this cage.

He stood and walked to the barrier, the aurora swirling and pulsating with energy, and sighed.

“Now what, George?”

Silence.

“Extinction got your tongue?”

Silence.

“Whatever. I’ll be here when you are ready to talk, I guess.”

Zack sat on the cot and clasped his hands on his lap. He hummed a song, the title he couldn’t remember, but it was a ditty he quite enjoyed back home.

George’s voice boomed. “You are very vexing. Vexing, indeed. You would rather die than help us. You would extinguish your own life just to extinguish ours.”

“Hi, George.”

“Vexing to the last.”

Zack tried not to be smug, but he couldn’t help it. “You lost.”

“We lost long ago.”

“Where are the others?”

“Safe.”

“What will happen to them?”

“They will die … eventually, as all life does; but not here and not at by our hand. There was a great deal of discussion about what to do with you.”

“And what did you decide.”

George’s voice was somber. “We are a perishing people on a dying world. We decided there is no need to extinguish you along with us.”

“What happens now?”

“You will be sent home.”

Zack stood and walked to the barrier, seething with anger. “So, that’s it? It’s over? What of the people who died? Mizuki? Jenai? The countless others who were butchered? What of the maimed like Harness? What of the tortured like Splifkin?”

Silence.

Zack spoke through gritted teeth. “No good answer to that, huh?”

“All will be returned.”

Zack’s eye flared open wider. “What do you mean?”

“The injured will be repaired. We are not cruel. No one perished. We are not murderers.”

Zack backed away from the barrier in shock. He slumped back onto the cot and felt his face crease with a large smile. “So, Mizuki is alive?”

“The one you call Mizuki lives.”

His heart fluttered in his chest. He felt that shudder move through him again. He tried to speak but couldn’t. The joy overwhelmed him and his breathing became heavy and laborious and his eyes welled up with tears.

“Are you injured?” George’s voice was almost tinged with concern. “I can heal you.”

Zack laughed. “No, George. I am happy beyond words.”

He stood and walked back to the barrier. “Can Mizuki come home with me?”

“No.”

Zack’s smile turned quickly into a frown. He felt a sinking feeling. He hated that sinking feeling. “Why?”

“Spearmint and caraway.”

Zack shook his head and shrugged. He was indignant. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“You and Mizuki are chiral, like spearmint and caraway on your world. Like your right hand and her left. Opposites.”

Zack sighed. He felt that eye twitch like the wings of a hummingbird. “I still don’t understand.”

George explained it to him the best he could, using small worlds and tiny concepts so his primitive mind could comprehend.
He didn’t have to put it so rudely.
He explained how on Zack’s planet spearmint and caraway are flavors that are exactly the same molecularly, except one has a left-handed orientation and the other a right-handed one. They are mirror images of each other. Chiral. Because of this, they are processed by humans in radically different ways and thus taste completely different.

He further explained that on Zack’s planet, all organic molecules are left-handed and on Mizuki’s world, all organic molecules are right-handed.

“You cannot survive on each other’s off-handed worlds. She could gain no nourishment from your food. Your planet would eventually kill her.”

Zack stumbled back to his cot and sat on it, feeling the spring poke him unpleasantly again. “So, there’s no way?”

“No.”

“Does she know?”

“She has been informed.”

“Can I say goodbye?”

“She asked the same. Would that not bring you more distress to see her again knowing you cannot be with her?”

“Yes. But it’s worth it.”

“Vexing to the last.”

Zack stood from his cot and walked to the barrier. “Will you grant me one more wish?”

“What is your wish?”

“I want to see you.”

Silence.

Zack waited. The barrier dissipated and from the shadow emerged George in his true form. Zack was taken aback by the sight at first, but smiled.

George had a head, a torso, arms and legs like every life form he had seen, but he was translucent like a jellyfish. Instead of a gelatinous body, it was a swirl of pure energy, much like the barrier that once separated them. The lights swirled in sapphire blues and glowing granites and alabasters and pale greens and pinks.

Zack reached out his hand to George, but he backed away timidly. His face had no eyes, no nose, no lips, but he still spoke. “I offend you.”

“No, George, you are beautiful.”

A long pause, then, “You are ugly.”

Zack laughed.

George’s colors began to fade. They became dull and lackluster and no longer swirled with the same vigor. He bent over in what looked like pain.

“What’s happening, George?”

“We are dying. Our end is nearing. We are alone.”

“You’re not really alone and this really isn’t the end. You have left us, and countless others, behind. In a way, we are your children, your offspring. We can live for you.”

“Thank you, Zack. What we did, we did to survive, but it was a foolhardy quest. We were doomed and have been doomed for centuries. We are old and tired. We have overstayed the welcome of the universe. We will let the natural course of things decide our fate, as it always has been and always will be. There is a higher power that even we must answer to.”

Zack was speechless. He felt pangs of guilt.

“I’m sorry, George.” Zack meant it.

George’s colors returned, vibrant as ever. “All living things die. Go to the one you call Mizuki. She is waiting for you.”

“Thank you, George.”

George slipped back into the shadows.

Zack felt for him and his dying race.

Like rust eating away at a steel bridge, time and mutations ate away at the Ankhs. They tried to fight it, tried to stem the ever-increasing tide, but ultimately lost their war—the only war that counted.

Their extinction was just as certain as the extinction of the stars and the heat of the universe.

†††

Zack heard the din grow louder as he neared the grand ballroom—the center of the universe. As he stepped through the great arch, he was shocked to see thousands of people milling about.

He had no idea the scope of the Ankhs’ operation until now. All of these people were brought here from every corner of the universe. Now they were all going home. They were joyous.

Zack scanned the crowd for a familiar face, but saw none. He pushed his way through the throng, bumping into people with scales, people with skin as dark as that desert night, people as light as the brightest moon in Mizuki’s sky, tall people and short people, thin people and round people, people with eyes of every color.

He marveled at each and every one of them.

Finally he saw Harness and Caroline and slithered his way to them.

“Hey, loser,” Harness said, smiling, as he raised his hands and wiggled his fingers. “They fixed me up. They fixed us all up.”

Caroline limped to Zack and threw her arms around him. “Zack. Oh my God, Zack. What happened?”

“I took Harness’ advice and fell on the sword.”

Harness peered at him, dumbfounded.

Zack scanned the crowd again and saw Zill, Brock and Cass huddled close by. They acknowledged him with a wave, and then parted enough for Zack to catch a glimpse of Jenai.

When she saw him, she bounded over to him and squeezed him tightly. “You avenged me,” she said as she dug her head into his chest.

Zack smiled. “I avenged us all.”

Brock, Cass and Zill walked over and huddled closely around Zack. It was disconcerting.

Some things never change.

“Your solution,” Brock said, his voice very Brock-ly—Zack had missed his analytical speeches, “was very interesting.”

Cass rolled her eyes. “You’re still a bloody idiot if you ask me.” She winked to let him know she was chiding.

Zill just looked at him and smiled, her arms crossed on her chest. “At least you know what your deal is now. We all have a deal.”

Zack scanned the room again, looking for Mizuki. He longed to see her again before they departed. His heart still hurt that they could not be together.

Caroline noticed his searching eyes and tugged at the sleeve of his shirt. “She’s not here.”

“Where is she?” Zack asked.

“In her room. She said she couldn’t bear to be around all these people so happy to be going home when she couldn’t go where she really wanted to go.”

Zack bowed his head and bit his lower lip. The reality of their situation had finally hit him. He would never see Mizuki again after tonight. There are long-distance relationships and then there are
long-distance
relationships. They rarely worked when there are only a few hundred miles of separation, let alone a galaxy.

It wasn’t like Zack could Skype with her. It wasn’t like he could Snapchat with her or text her good morning and goodnight. That saddened him deeply.

Caroline pecked him on the cheek. “Go to her.”

Zack nodded and pushed his way toward the exit. He looked back at Caroline, who brushed a tear from her cheek and squeezed Harness’ arm. Zack knew Caroline well and he knew she was feeling guilty.

She would have her bae; Zack would not.

As Zack exited the center of the universe he was stopped by a large, scaly hand on his shoulder that spun him around.

Peering down at him were the large eyes of Splifkin. Zack’s lips quivered as he tried to speak. Splifkin allayed his fears with a deep laugh. “Don’t worry, Zack, I will not consume you like a norge, if that is what you fear.”

Zack chuckled nervously. “I’m just glad to see you … normal.”

Splifkin laughed again, his skin turning pink. “I’m just relieved everyone was restored.”

Everyone did appear to be back to normal as if nothing had happened. Zack knew better, though. No one would go back to normal after this experience. No one would slip back into their lives when they returned home. Zack figured that was probably a good thing.

He was a different person now, as if his skin had changed pigment from the yellow of a timid boy who was too afraid to stick up for himself and into bold colors, confident colors, determined colors.